Reviewing: “A Mysterious Guest for Dinner” by Moshe Sokol. Maggid Books. 2024. Hardcover. 260 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1592646746.
(Courtesy of Touro University) Aggadic stories in the Talmud offer profound insights into the lives of some of Judaism’s greatest sages — Hillel, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, Rav Sheshet, Rav Yannai and many others — as they grapple with moral and existential dilemmas that resonate through the ages. In “A Mysterious Guest for Dinner,” Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokol, the dean of Touro University’s Graduate School of Jewish Studies, delves into these timeless tales, asking thought-provoking questions: Should one sacrifice everything for a life of extreme holiness? Who truly deserves charity in a time of poverty and how should one respond when a seemingly affluent individual begs for food? When a marriage falters because a wife attends a Torah lecture, who bears responsibility? And, most intriguing, is it ever possible to encounter the Messiah?
“The more I carefully studied Aggados in the Gemara which tell stories, the more convinced I became that behind the often striking and fascinating storyline itself there was embedded the deepest wisdom of Chazal. And the more I sought to plumb the depths of that wisdom, the more excited I became about sharing it with others,” said Sokol.
This volume, the second in Sokol’s series on Talmudic stories published by Koren, presents a close analysis of 10 narratives, uncovering the rich dialogues, ironies and reversals they contain. Drawing on classical rabbinic commentaries, contemporary scholarship and insights from psychology, literature, history and philosophy, Sokol demonstrates how these compact stories speak with enduring relevance to today’s seekers of Talmudic wisdom.
“Many who learn Gemara either skip over such Aggados or learn them quickly without devoting to them the attention they deserve. I hope readers of the book will be inspired themselves to work at understanding the many Aggadetas they encounter in their own learning, to focus on every word and phrase of the Gemara with meticulous care, to raise careful questions about the Aggadeta, and then to do their best to answer them. Every word, every teaching of Chazal, is precious. They often sought through the fascinating stories they told to convey their deepest insights about the human condition, about the complexity of human relationships and moral obligations, about the challenges of avodat Hashem and the costs it sometimes exacts, about the impact of our past upon the difficult choices we sometimes make, and about our deepest yearnings as Jews and human beings. I hope this second volume, like the first, introduces its readers to the complex and often surprising depths of Chazal’s wisdom,” continued Sokol.
In addition to his position at Touro, Sokol is rabbi of the Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush in Brooklyn. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Thyssen Foundation Research Fellow, and received semicha from the Israel Torah Research Institute (ITRI) in Jerusalem after seven years of study in the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Touro University’s graduate and undergraduate schools. Sokol has written or edited six books including “Judaism Examined: Essays in Jewish Philosophy and Ethics” (2013), and bestseller of the year, “The Snake at the Mouth of the Cave: Exploring Talmudic Narratives” (2021).
“A Mysterious Guest for Dinner” can be purchased at korenpub.com.
